Monthly Archives: June 2015
Bee in Beach Rose
Bee in Rugosa Rose (Beach Rose), Back Creek, Kennebunk ME
It rained off and on most of yesterday, but about 3 pm I decided to go for a photoprowl on my bike anyway. I pushed through what turned out to be a thin band of light rain and got to the marsh behind the beach in time for the sun to come out. I had some fun chasing bees in the Beach Rose along the road (among other things). The wet flowers, and the freshly washed bees, made for vivid images. I did some tele-macro, and then switched to actual macro as the bees were so busy feeding that they did not seem to mind a close approach. This one was captured at about 80mm equivalent field of view in Close Up Mode.
Nikon P900. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f3.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Song Sparrow in Sea Grass
Song Sparrow, Back Creek Marsh, Kennebunk ME
There don’t seem to be as many Song Sparrows nesting on the dunes between the Back Creek Marsh and the ocean as there have been in some years, but they are there. I suspect it has to do with our late spring. The Yellow Warblers that are often nesting with them are, as far as I can see, totally missing this year. Hard to say exactly why. Yesterday we had a high wind and this Song Sparrow was singing from such a low perch I could not spot it before it flew out into the Sea Grass where dune meets marsh. It popped its head up just long enough for a few shots. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Chalk-fronted Corporal
Chalk-fronted Corporal, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I have never seen as many Chalk-fronted Corporals as I have this year. They are currently our most abundant dragonfly by a factor of ten. Of course it helps that they are fair sized and whitish so they show up well in almost any habitat, and their habit of perching for moments at a time makes them easy to photograph. This specimen perched on this interesting fungal formation long enough for a portrait.
Nikon P900 at 550mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Tenerals at Day Brook Pond. Happy Sunday!
Teneral Dragonflies. Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area.
Day Brook Pond is rapidly becoming my favorite local place to visit. It is not far…less than 5 miles…and it is beautiful both in itself, as landscape, and in the wide variety of wildlife possible there. Right now, the dragon and damsel flies are emerging in great numbers…the most I have ever seen in Southern Maine…and every trip is a study in tenerals. “Teneral” is the technical term among Odonatist for the newly emerged dragons and damsels in their adult (flying) form. Odonata have one of the more complex lifecycles…going through many sub-adult aquatic forms, before emerging for flight, mating, and egg-laying. This panel shows, clockwise from the upper left, and as near as I can tell: Calico Pennant (likely a female), Mantled Baskettail (the only one I have ever seen perched), Slaty Skimmer, and a likely Lancet Clubtail, all on their maiden flights. There were full adults of all of these species present over the pond and along the edges, but they were not posing for pics yesterday 🙂
Nikon P900. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Day Brook Pond. Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area
The abundance and variety of tenerals at Day Brook Pond continues to amaze me. I will go back this afternoon to see what else I can find, and perhaps to catch some of the adults perching. The Pond is embedded in a large parcel (almost 2000 acres) of State, Nature Conservancy, and Kennebunk Land Trust holdings that make up the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area (home to the endangered Black Racer Snake and, come August, the largest stand of the endangered Northern Blazing Star flower in the world). It appears to be an exceptionally healthy pond. It is also undeniably beautiful in its quiet way. It is a place that makes me feel privileged to be alive, privileged to be able to enjoy such a place, such a season with emerging odonata, wildflowers, birds, and the tall skies of early summer. Blessed. Simply blessed. It is good to be alive. It is better to know it is good. Thank you God. Happy Sunday!
Wild Iris
Wild Iris, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
Our late spring means that the Wild Iris, normally blooming the first of June, is, most places it grows, just stands of spear-like leaves this week. I did find this one specimen in a particularly sunny spot along the Bridle Path in Kennebunk. There is nothing quite so intense as purple, and no purple more intense than that of the Wild Iris in the sun. The contrasting white and yellow, and the pit of pattern in the white, just make the purple more purple. 🙂 It is all together a beautiful flower.
Nikon P900 at 700mm equivalent field of view. 1/1250th @ ISO 800 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Screaming Eagles!
Bald Eagles, Back Creek/Mousam River, Kennebunk ME
It looks like this pair of Bald Eagles is at least thinking about nesting between Back Creek and the Mousam River about 2 miles from our house in Kennebunk. I hope they do. It would give me a great summer project. On the other hand maybe it is just going to be a favored perch, and that is okay too. The nearest safe approach is still out 300 yards from this tall spruce, so I will not get any great images (that is just too much air to shoot through, especially between two streams), but I still like to see them there. In this shot, the male had just returned to the perch and the pair was sounding off. Literally screaming eagles. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Painted Skimmer
Painted Skimmer, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
Painted Skimmer is another early dragonfly in Southern Maine. I glimpsed my first a week ago, but this is the first one that has posed for me, and I found it in, what seemed to me, a very unlikely place…deep in the forest along the Kennebunk Bridle Path. There were some pools, full of moss and ferns and violets, and totally overshadowed by pines and maples, along the path through the forest…but I think of the skimmers as open country, open marsh dragons. Live and learn. This one certainly could not have been better positioned for photography. I saw it in flight, but when it landed in a patch of sun off the trail, it sat there for at least a half hour. I photographed it, then walked to the end of the trail where it meets the road to Mother’s Beach, and it was still sitting on its branch when I got back to it. So, of course, I photographed it some more!
Nikon P900 at 650mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ f5.6 @ ISO 100. Processed and cropped for scale in Lightroom.
Singing in the rain…
Song Sparrow, Back Creek, Kennebunk ME
After it rained steadily all Sunday, and all Monday…and when it looked likely to rain all day Tuesday, I decided that I was not going to let the rain keep me from my photoprowl another day. I put on my raincoat, got out the umbrella, picked up the Nikon P900, and headed out. I figured I could find some moody, rainy landscapes at the least, so I headed for the beach at the end our our road. Of course, before I was fully out of the car, before I even got the umbrella up and sorted out the camera, I heard a Song Sparrow singing in the rain. Classic. The prefect title for a post! So I had to find the bird, fight the umbrella in the wind, and attempt to catch it singing. Before I was done with the bird and few landscapes, the umbrella had blown inside out and I had to dash back to the car to dry the camera off. It was worth it though. If a Song Sparrow can sing in the rain, I can certainly take a few pics 🙂 And I certainly felt better for it! If you look closely at the image you will see the water droplets on the bird’s plumage, and even the tracks of a few rain drops as they crossed the frame.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ f6.5 @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet. Cropped slightly for composition.
Yellow Warblerish
Yellow Warbler, Timber Point trail, Rachel Carson NWR, Biddeford Pool, ME
Yellow Warbler is likely one of the most abundant warblers in North America…or that is how it seems in May and June. They are so bright and so loud that they are hard to miss…and then there is their habit of climbing up on protruding branches, low or high, fully exposed, and singing in the sun. I suppose they are so obvious that one Yellow Warbler can dominate a space that might contain 30 other warblers. Maybe that is why they seem so abundant. This one was near the parking area for the Timber Point / Timber Island trail at the new Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge property south of Biddeford Pool in Maine. It is a totally classic view of a very present bird 🙂
It is a great antidote for the weather as we enter our third day of pretty constant cold rain in Southern Maine. We do need the water, but…
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Chipper on the edge!
Chipmunk. Timber Point / Timber Island Trail, Rachel Carson NWR, Bidderford Pool, ME
The chipmunks were not as evident along Rachel Carson NWR’s Timber Island / Timber Point Trail on Saturday as they were in the fall. In the fall they were everywhere and everywhere active collecting acorns. On Saturday I only caught one out in plain sight, and he was so startled that he clung frozen to the side of the tree where I first saw him for several moments…hanging on, as they say, by his toenails. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.